Missouri killer seeking firing squad loses high court appeal
The Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear an appeal from a Missouri death row inmate who is seeking execution by firing squad.
Death Penalty
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Charleston church shooter making appellate arguments
The man on federal death row for the racist slayings of nine members of a Black South Carolina congregation is making his appellate argument that his conviction and death sentence should be overturned.
Split Supreme Court upholds denial of LWOP defendant’s pro se request
A Boone County murder defendant convicted and sentenced to life without parole failed to convince a majority of the Indiana Supreme Court that the trial court improperly denied his request to proceed pro se. The majority provided an analysis for considering pro se requests in capital and LWOP sentences, but minority justices raised concerns about the majority “till(ing) new constitutional soil.”
Texas’ longest serving death row inmate has sentence tossed
An appeals court has overturned the sentence of Texas’ longest serving death row inmate whose attorneys say has languished in prison for more than 45 years because he’s too mentally ill to be executed.
Ramsey Clark, attorney general under Johnson, dies at 93
Ramsey Clark, the attorney general in the Johnson administration who became an outspoken activist for unpopular causes and a harsh critic of U.S. policy, has died. He was 93.
Serial killer on federal death row dies at Indiana hospital
A convicted serial killer whose victims included two young boys died Sunday at a hospital in Indiana, authorities said.
Court could reimpose Boston marathon bomber’s death sentence
The United States Supreme Court said Monday it will consider reinstating the death sentence for Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, presenting President Joe Biden with an early test of his opposition to capital punishment.
On federal death row, inmates talk about Biden, executions
On federal death row in Terre Haute, prisoners fling notes on a string under each other’s cell doors and converse through interconnected air ducts. A top issue these days: whether President Joe Biden will halt executions, several told The Associated Press.
Jones: Pardon me? Can you deny a presidential pardon or commutation?
Though most of us might strain ourselves thinking of a reason why one might refuse a pardon or a commutation, multiple individuals have attempted to reject a pardon or commutation, providing both interesting stories and a strange, potential check on the executive.
DOC secrets remain after justices rule for disclosure
Despite a ruling in her favor from the Indiana Supreme Court capping her years-long quest to find out how the state of Indiana might carry out an execution, Washington, D.C., attorney Katherine Toomey was still waiting for answers two weeks later.
Justices split, let stand rulings against DOC over death penalty secrecy
The Indiana Supreme Court has evenly split in a long-running dispute over disclosure of records concerning the state’s lethal injection drugs, clearing the way for disclosure of the records and the payment by the state of more than a half-million dollars in legal fees.
Executioners sanitized accounts of deaths in federal cases
Executioners who put 13 inmates to death in the last months of the Trump administration likened the process of dying by lethal injection to falling asleep and called gurneys “beds” and final breaths “snores.” The sworn accounts by executioners, which government filings cited as evidence the lethal injections were going smoothly, raise questions about whether officials misled courts to ensure the executions scheduled from July to mid-January were done before death penalty opponent Joe Biden became president.
82 advocacy groups call on Biden to end federal executions
Dozens of civil rights and advocacy organizations are calling on the Biden administration to immediately halt federal executions after an unprecedented run of capital punishment under former President Donald Trump and to commute the sentences of inmates on federal death row.
Biden pressed to end federal death penalty
Joe Biden, the first sitting U.S. president to openly oppose the death penalty, has discussed the possibility of instructing the Department of Justice to stop scheduling new executions, officials have told The Associated Press. But it remains unclear whether Biden may take broader action to halt the federal death penalty.
Analysis: Federal executions likely a COVID superspreader
As the Trump administration was nearing the end of an unprecedented string of executions in Terre Haute, 70% of death row inmates were sick with COVID-19. Guards were ill. Traveling prison staff on the execution team had the virus. So did media witnesses, who may have unknowingly infected others when they returned home because they were never told about the spreading cases.
Feds withheld info on virus cases after Terre Haute executions
At least two journalists tested positive for coronavirus after witnessing the Trump administration’s final three federal executions, but the Bureau of Prisons knowingly withheld the diagnoses from other media witnesses and did not perform any contact tracing, The Associated Press has learned.
Suspect in IMPD officer’s slaying to face death penalty
The man accused of fatally shooting an Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department officer will face a potential death sentence, the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office announced Tuesday.
Indiana inmate agrees to plead guilty in inmate’s killing
An inmate at a central Indiana prison has agreed to plead guilty in the fatal stabbing of another inmate, four months after he rejected the same plea agreement. The inmate has previously requested the death penalty.
Trump administration carries out 13th and final execution
The Trump administration early Saturday carried out its 13th federal execution in Terre Haute since July, an unprecedented run that concluded just five days before the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden, an opponent of the federal death penalty.
Despite riot, impeachment, business as usual for high court
At this fraught moment in American history, the Supreme Court of the United States is doing its best to keep its head down, going about its regular business and putting off as many politically charged issues as it can, including whether President Donald Trump’s tax returns must be turned over to prosecutors in New York.